One look at Smiley, and you can tell how he earned the name.

But it’s the smiles the Golden Retriever puts on the faces of other people that may be his most lasting legacy.

Excerpt retrieved from Global News:
http://globalnews.ca/news/1879093/meet-smiley-blind-golden-retriever-brings-joy-to-ontario-town/

“People were so drawn to him, so inspired by him,” Smiley’s owner Joanne George told CBS News. “I realized this dog has to be a therapy dog — I have to share him.”

Smiley was born without eyes, and also suffers from dwarfism, meaning his legs are shorter than most dogs of his breed.

George said she found Smiley in a “puppy mill” when he was around two years old. According to a post on her website, Training the K9 Way, she knew his disabilities had left him neglected as a pup.

“He was extremely destructive and had zero housetraining. He was nervous and had many anxieties about coming into a home,” George wrote. “He cowered at the sound of another dog eating – the scars on his face and ears told me the stories of what it was like living with so many dogs in such deplorable conditions.”

Raising Smiley proved a challenge, as George had to teach a dog with no prior formal training, while overcoming his inability to see.

“He did not know one verbal command – I communicated only through my energy to him,” George wrote. “He did not see my body language – he used his nose and his keen sense of hearing to get around.”

Over a decade later, Smiley has found a unique way to bring some smiles to his community of Stouffville, Ontario.

Today he’s a certified therapy dog with the St. John Ambulance therapy dog program, a job he’s held for over seven years.

Whether it’s stopping in to visit local schools, playing with special needs children at the local library, or offering companionship to the residents of a nursing home – Smiley helps to bring some joy to people young and old.

"Silly" the Cat, circa 2011

(he still looks nearly exactly the same today!)

The story of this backyard cat is a long one but also quite trivial.

To sum up this feline, he (or is it she?), has been coming to my family's backyard for years now, starting in early as 2010. It is the summer of 2015 now and Silly still wants to be fed. So now my family buys cans of cat food on a regular basis. Wouldn't you think that 6 ounces of food would be enough for this cat? Wrong! He wants more...and more... and more. When the cat isn't busy eating ground chicken, beef and salmon, he's busy sleeping underneath the patio's raised garden bed, or even hunting for small birds. One time Silly took a dump on a hot summer day (and this was in 2015) and left it to melt on the cement part of the patio. I had to take the garden hose and set the 7 setting nozzle to "full stream" to wash that nasty little turd away. Was Silly upset we weren't feeding him on a daily basis? Was he feeling ill or has he gotten senile and old? We don't exactly know the exact age of this cat so perhaps its got some loose screws up there in its little noggin. Well, a year or so ago I planted some catnip for Silly and its taken full advantage of that stuff. I used to see him sitting in the small grove of catnip, blissed out and probably hallucinating. I tried to feed that cat some fruits and vegetables but all it wants is meat. One hell of a carnivore I have to say. That cat once used my raised beds as litter boxes so I had to put up a bit of fencing around it to keep the critter from relieving itself in my vegetable beds. That fence doubled as protection against rabbits and groundhogs too, I later realized. There's a duality in everything, isn't there? Well, anyway, I could keep going into more stories with this Silly cat but I don't want to waste your day. When I get a chance to add more recent photos of this cat, I will. For now, say hello to my little friend. :-)

Associated Press

Sunday 19 July 2015

Jet-setting stallions and high-flying hounds at New York’s Kennedy airport can look forward to a new luxury terminal that will handle the more than 70,000 animals flying in and out every year.

The ARK at JFK, its name inspired by Noah’s biblical vessel, will more than measure up to terminals for humans: horses and cows will occupy sleek, climate-controlled stalls with showers, and dogs will lounge in hotel suites featuring flat-screen TVs. A special space for penguins will allow them mating privacy.

The ARK is billed as the world’s first air terminal for animals.

Set to open next year, the $48m, 178,000-square-foot (16,500-square-meter) shelter and quarantine facility will take in every kind of animal imaginable — even an occasional sloth or aardvark. From The ARK, they’ll head to barns, cages, racetracks, shows and competition venues in the United States and abroad.

Many arriving animals are quarantined for a period of time (for horses, it’s normally about three days) to make sure they’re not carrying contagious diseases. And The ARK is designed to make their stay as pleasant as possible, with hay-lined stalls for up to 70 horses and 180 head of cattle, plus an aviary and holding pens for goats, pigs and sheep.

For dog owners, The ARK will offer a 20,000-sqf (1,860-sqm) luxury “resort” run by the company Paradise 4 Paws, complete with bone-shaped splashing pools, massage therapy and “pawdicures with colored nail pawlish.” Dogs can watch flat-screen TVs and their owners can check in on them via webcam.

Cats will have their own trees to climb. And all animals will have access to a 24-hour clinic run by Cornell University’s veterinary college.

Even animals that don’t need to be quarantined — a huge dog that can’t fit in the cabin and has to travel as cargo, for example — will be held at the facility until departure or pickup by its owner.

“A lot of our design making is in collaboration with veterinarians and consultants to help minimize the amount of stress placed on the animal,” said Cliff Bollmann, a leading airport architect working on The ARK for the San Francisco-based architecture firm Gensler.

Kennedy receives the bulk of animals entering the United States, but there are similar facilities near airports in Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami. Until Kennedy’s ARK opens, animals in transit will continue to be handled at the airport’s aging Vetport, built in the 1950s

Lachlan Oldaker, an Oklahoma-based equine specialist and key member of the architectural team, called The ARK “an enormous leap forward.”

“The design allows planes to taxi directly to the building, so horses can be transported in a seamless fashion that reduces stress,” she said.

The ARK is being built on the site of an unused cargo terminal that has been demolished. ARK Development, an affiliate of the Madison Avenue real-estate company Racebrook Capital, has signed a 32-year lease for the airport property with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey agency that runs Kennedy.

When completed, the facility is subject to approval by the US Department of Agriculture. Animals will be charged fees — still being determined depending on services — that will help fund the terminal. High-end dog “suites” could top $100 per night.

Transporting animals by air is not aimed at low-income owners. A flight to London for a dog can cost about $1,000, plus a crate, airport fees and vet certifications. And moving a horse can add up to at least $10,000.

The ARK’s designers have had to meet challenges not found in other architectural projects — for instance, figuring out how to dispose of animal waste. They came up with the idea of a “poo chute,” an angled floor from which manure slides into a container.

The equine wing is a welcome improvement to international show jumper and organizer Derek Braun.

Horses must currently be driven to a quarantine facility in Newburgh, about 80 m(130 km) north of Kennedy. The ARK has an in-house quarantine.

“I personally, as well as competitors for my shows, ship so many horses from Europe each year that having the peace of mind that one step of the travel process will be eliminated is a big relief because it eliminates part of the risk of injury,” he said.

Jet-setting stallions and high-flying hounds at New York’s Kennedy airport can look forward to a new luxury terminal that will handle the more than 70,000 animals flying in and out every year.

The ARK at JFK, its name inspired by Noah’s biblical vessel, will more than measure up to terminals for humans: horses and cows will occupy sleek, climate-controlled stalls with showers, and dogs will lounge in hotel suites featuring flat-screen TVs. A special space for penguins will allow them mating privacy.

The ARK is billed as the world’s first air terminal for animals.

Set to open next year, the $48m, 178,000-square-foot (16,500-square-meter) shelter and quarantine facility will take in every kind of animal imaginable — even an occasional sloth or aardvark. From The ARK, they’ll head to barns, cages, racetracks, shows and competition venues in the United States and abroad.

Many arriving animals are quarantined for a period of time (for horses, it’s normally about three days) to make sure they’re not carrying contagious diseases. And The ARK is designed to make their stay as pleasant as possible, with hay-lined stalls for up to 70 horses and 180 head of cattle, plus an aviary and holding pens for goats, pigs and sheep.

For dog owners, The ARK will offer a 20,000-sqf (1,860-sqm) luxury “resort” run by the company Paradise 4 Paws, complete with bone-shaped splashing pools, massage therapy and “pawdicures with colored nail pawlish.” Dogs can watch flat-screen TVs and their owners can check in on them via webcam.

Cats will have their own trees to climb. And all animals will have access to a 24-hour clinic run by Cornell University’s veterinary college.

Even animals that don’t need to be quarantined — a huge dog that can’t fit in the cabin and has to travel as cargo, for example — will be held at the facility until departure or pickup by its owner.

“A lot of our design making is in collaboration with veterinarians and consultants to help minimize the amount of stress placed on the animal,” said Cliff Bollmann, a leading airport architect working on The ARK for the San Francisco-based architecture firm Gensler.

Kennedy receives the bulk of animals entering the United States, but there are similar facilities near airports in Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami. Until Kennedy’s ARK opens, animals in transit will continue to be handled at the airport’s aging Vetport, built in the 1950s.

Lachlan Oldaker, an Oklahoma-based equine specialist and key member of the architectural team, called The ARK “an enormous leap forward.”

“The design allows planes to taxi directly to the building, so horses can be transported in a seamless fashion that reduces stress,” she said.

The ARK is being built on the site of an unused cargo terminal that has been demolished. ARK Development, an affiliate of the Madison Avenue real-estate company Racebrook Capital, has signed a 32-year lease for the airport property with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey agency that runs Kennedy.

When completed, the facility is subject to approval by the US Department of Agriculture. Animals will be charged fees — still being determined depending on services — that will help fund the terminal. High-end dog “suites” could top $100 per night.

Transporting animals by air is not aimed at low-income owners. A flight to London for a dog can cost about $1,000, plus a crate, airport fees and vet certifications. And moving a horse can add up to at least $10,000.

The ARK’s designers have had to meet challenges not found in other architectural projects — for instance, figuring out how to dispose of animal waste. They came up with the idea of a “poo chute,” an angled floor from which manure slides into a container.

The equine wing is a welcome improvement to international show jumper and organizer Derek Braun.

Horses must currently be driven to a quarantine facility in Newburgh, about 80 m(130 km) north of Kennedy. The ARK has an in-house quarantine.

“I personally, as well as competitors for my shows, ship so many horses from Europe each year that having the peace of mind that one step of the travel process will be eliminated is a big relief because it eliminates part of the risk of injury,” he said.

True Love.. Kangaroo and Lemur are BEST BUDDIES

Baby Monkey Nala waking up...